AFSA's Role

Debtors, creditors, and debt administrators are held accountable by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA). AFSA uses its executive power to administer and regulate Australia’s insolvency system. AFSA aims to gain the trust of the public and takes pride in its claim to provide fair treatment to both debtors and creditors in order to keep the financial community in a peaceful, symbiotic relationship.

As the Chief Executive of AFSA, the Inspector-General must ensure that the Bankruptcy Act is adhered to by debtors, creditors, and registered practitioners through regulations, decision reviews, and investigations. The following paragraphs offer a broad view of AFSA’s duties and obligations.

From a broad perspective, AFSA (as the Official Trustee in Bankruptcy) investigates bankrupts, can sell debtor’s assets, and pay off creditors from the sale of the bankrupt’s assets.

Added, AFSA has its own independent Bankruptcy Regulation Unit (BRU) which regulates the practices of registered practitioners. Through the BRU, AFSA oversees bankruptcy practice and procedure.

AFSA vigilantly monitors registered practitioners, scrutinising their systems, files and procedures, and proactively responding to complaints raised against registered practitioners with a punishment, pending the nature and truth of the complaint.

AFSA checks that the debt agreement proposals satisfy the predetermined eligibility criteria and records the results of voting on the acceptance of a debt proposal on the National Personal Insolvency Index (NPII) - the public registry of those with personal insolvencies.

The scope of AFSA spans personal bankruptcy, insolvency law, and the application of the Bankruptcy Act from policy and legislation reform, bankruptcy fraud investigation, bankruptcy registry and compliance, debt agreement service, information service, and bankruptcy regulation to bankruptcy estate administration.

AFSA’s website is frequently updated so the community remains informed and up to date of its fees and charges, proceedings, and relevant changes to the rules and regulations. Check it out at www.afsa.gov.au/ for more information.